1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to power management, and more particularly to a method and system for implementing sleep modes in a blade enclosure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A blade enclosure is an enclosure that contains two or more computer motherboards commonly referred to as “blades.” Typically, each blade in a blade enclosure includes one or more processors, main memory, one or more network interfaces and optionally some secondary storage such as one or more disk drives. Within a given blade enclosure, each blade shares cooling and power infrastructure with the other blades in the enclosure. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical blade enclosure 100 with m blades 102, each of which may include a bus interface 104 and a network interface 106. The network interfaces of blades 102 may be connected to a network directly or indirectly, such as through an internal switch and/or router 108 as shown. Each of blades 102 may share certain enclosure resources such as power supply 110 and cooling system 112. An additional computing device, illustrated here as enclosure manager 114, provides administrative functionality necessary to manage the resources within the enclosure. Administrative software 116 runs on a processor of enclosure manager 114 for this purpose. Enclosure manager 114 is connected to each of blades 102 via an internal bus 118. Each of the blades 102 may have displays 120, which provide operating and status information and status.
Data communication continues to increase, especially with regard to the Internet where not only voice data but also high bandwidth video is being transmitted. The increasing data rates and volumes of information transmitted in communication systems and computer networks are driving demand for faster and more compact computer servers. Computer servers employ the blade architecture that was described in FIG. 1. The increased data rates require faster central processor units (CPUs) that operate at higher clock speeds. However, the higher clock speeds and data rate throughput of the CPUs create the problem of increased power consumption and production of heat. The acceleration of server consolidation in data centers has acerbated the problem. Server consolidation allows for more servers or blades to be placed on a rack in a data center, but server racks are running close to their theoretical limit due to the need to deliver large amounts of power into a small volume, and the large amount of heat created by the power consumption. The vast amounts of heat generated in a data center having several server racks require device thermal control and environmental cooling, which is an additional energy consumption concern. Thus, intelligent power management, at either the hardware layer or the software layer, is required to make more efficient use of energy resources. Intelligent power management allows more servers to be inserted into a rack, thus reducing space/management overhead. In addition, as energy costs keep rising, savings on utility bills become more important. Therefore, there is a need for continued advancements in power conservation management of blade components.